APRIL, 1908 
of anthers can be collected in a short time. 
These are placed on a sheet of paper or a 
blotter in a warm, dry place, where there are 
no drafts, and they will burst in a few hours. 
There is, of course, a_ slight possibility 
that the pollen of another variety may have 
fallen upon these anthers. 
The most generally approved method of 
collecting pollen in large quantities is to 
pick off the unopened buds, clip off the 
anthers with scissors and let these open on a 
paper. The buds may be gathered from 
one to five days before they would open, 
or any time after the anthers are mature, 
the later the better. The petals and sepals 
may be stripped back and only the anthers 
clipped off, but a more rapid way (at least 
with fruits having an inferior ovary) is to 
clip off the entire top of the bud low enough 
to include most of the anthers. ‘The petals 
and sepals are then winnowed or sifted out 
and the anthers spread on blotting paper 
which will absorb their moisture. Place the 
paper of anthers where there are no currents 
of air. A greenhouse bench is an excellent 
place. Professor F. A. Waugh simplifies 
this method by gathering the partially open 
buds, spreading them in the sun, and shaking 
off the pollen upon paper; or twigs with 
buds may be cut and placed in water or 
moist sand indoors until the pollen can be 
shaken out. If the anthers are to be clipped 
off, one man can prepare, in half a day, 
enough apple, pear or peach pollen for 
about eight hundred blossoms. Strawberry 
pollen can be gathered more rapidly. 
If the pollen cannot be used the day it is 
collected, it must be stored very carefully. 
If corked up in a vial before it is perfectly 
dry, it will ferment in a few hours. Fre- 
quently it is more convenient to gather pollen 
several days in advance of pollination and 
sometimes it must be stored several weeks or 
longer. How long it will retain vitality de- 
pends as much upon the way it is dried and 
stored as upon the kind of pollen. Before all 
else it is necessary to have the pollen perfectly 
dry and to remove from it all anther sacks, 
filaments and other matter that might decay. 
In my own work I do not winnow out the 
empty anther sacks. The pollen will then 
THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 
Applying pollen to apple pistils with a cama}l’s- 
hair brush. This method is wasteful of pollen but 
it permits rapid work 
keep very satisfactorily in a dry paper en- 
velope, and may even be mailed in this 
package. Professor J. C. Whitten makes 
the pollen envelopes of blotting paper, the 
edges being folded, not sealed. A perfectly 
dry glass vial is often used. 
Stored pollen should be kept from exces- 
sive heat or cold and from dampness. It is 
not known how long properly stored fruit 
pollen will retain its potency. Much de- 
pends upon the vigor of the tree. I have 
had fair results from apple pollen three 
weeks old; several correspondents have 
had success with fruit pollen six to eight 
weeks old. 
Mr. T. V. Munson describes a remarkably 
successful method of storing grape pollen: 
Gather flowers in midday when the dew 
has gone, and clip off the anthers. Place 
these in a new, very clean, tin box, which is 
three-quarters filled. Set the box in a warm 
room where there are no drafts, but do not 
allow direct sunlight to fall on the anthers 
Every half hour put the lid on the box and 
shake it violently. All the pollen should be 
out in two hours. Winnow out very gently 
all anthers and everything but the pcllen; 
then set the pollen in a sunny room, but not 
in direct sunlight, for two hours longer. 
Close the box and paste a strip of paper 
145 
all around the crack of the cover, making it 
air tight. Place the box in a dry room, 
where the temperature does not rise above 
80 degrees cr fall below 65 degrees. ‘“‘ Under 
these conditions,” writes Mr. Munson, “grape 
pollen I have collected in Texas went to New 
York, was used there successfully three weeks 
later by Jacob Moore, and the remainder I 
used successfully in Texas one year later.”’ 
HOW TO APPLY POLLEN 
The simplest way, and the slowest, is to 
touch the stigma with a dehisced anther. 
When the pistils are as large as they are in 
all our common tree fruits, the thumb or 
forefinger may be dipped in the pollen and 
then pressed upon the stigma. Luther 
Burbank does most of his pollinating in 
this way. Much pollen is wasted in thumb 
pollination, but the method is rapid and 
efficient. A majority of people, however, 
prefer a small, pointed, camel’s-hair brush, 
having a handle about eight inches long. 
I carry pollen to the orchard in corked vials, 
one by three and a half inches. The vial 
is carried in the upper vest pocket for con- 
venience. 
When pollinating blossoms that have a 
single pistil (as the peach), it is well to rest 
the end of the pistil against the thumb nail 
of the left hand; this steadies the brush and 
focuses the eye upon the stigma. When 
pollinating several blossoms in a cluster, 
(as the apple cr pear), gather the three or 
four blossoms together and pollinate all at 
once; this saves both time and pollen. It 
pays to put on pollen until it can be plainly 
seen on the stigma. Brush pollination is 
somewhat clumsy and is certainly quite 
wasteful of pollen, but it is often the most 
practicable method. Professor C. P. Close 
places the pollen in a shallow glass dish, 
and dips the stigmas into the pollen. 
WHAT KIND OF SACK TO USE 
A paper bag of thin tough paper is needed. 
Manila sacks as used by grocers are em- 
ployed almost exclusively, the two to six 
pound sizes most commonly; the four, five 
and six pound sizes being most serviceable 
for tree fruits. They should be large enough 
Removing the stamens from anapple. The 
scalpel is placed too low; it willinjure the ovary. 
Compare with figure on other side 
it may die. 
at a proper height 
The blossom on the right has been cut too low; 
The blossom on the left has been cut 
The cut cannot be made lower than this on an 
apple blossom without danger of injuring the 
ovary. Compare with figures to the left 
